Tetraodontidae

Silver-cheeked toadfish

Lagocephalus sceleratus

A silver band crossing into the Mediterranean

• Black
• Gray
• White
• Tropical
• Nearshore
• Globally widespread
• Marine fish
• Globular or blocky
• Large
• Tropical fish

Revered for its immense size and notorious for extreme biological toxicity, the silver-cheeked toadfish is a large pelagic tetraodontid native to the tropical Indo-Pacific and infamous as a destructive invasive species in the Mediterranean Sea. Its elongated, bullet-shaped body displays an olive-brown dorsal surface densely peppered with regular dark brownish spots, contrasted by an unmistakable, radiant metallic silver stripe running along the lower flanks and a shimmering silver patch on each cheek. Heavy, fused beak-like jaw plates enable it to shear easily through metal fishhooks and fishing nets. Native across the tropical Indo-West Pacific from the Red Sea and South Africa to northern Australia, it famously invaded the eastern Mediterranean via the Suez Canal (Lessepsian migration), expanding aggressively across continental shelves from ten to one hundred and eighty meters depth. A formidable opportunistic carnivore, it preys on cephalopods, swimming crabs, and commercial fishes. Ingestion is fatal due to concentrated tetrodotoxin in muscle tissue, skin, and organs. Maximum recorded total length attains one hundred and ten centimetres.

Sources: FishBase & FAO — Silver-cheeked Toadfish, Lagocephalus sceleratus